Rowan Big Wool Bag

Warning: May Contain Ranting...

When I learned to knit back in June, the course instructor said one of the hardest things was finding kits and projects that were easy enough for a true beginner.

This bag is made from a Learn to Knit with Rowan kit that I picked up in a sale a while ago. There is not a chance I could have knitted this as my first project or even my 20th. Let me explain...

The kit itself is lovely. It contains two balls of gorgeous Rowan Big Wool (this shade is called smooch - how cute!), plastic 10 mm knitting needles and the pattern leaflet. You can choose to make either this bag or a scarf and both look nice. As you can guess, I opted for the bag.

The leaflet contains short, basic guides on casting on, knit stitch, purl and casting off. The second row of the bag pattern requires you to do an increase on a purl row using make one and purling through the back of the loop!!! In my humble opinion, this is not a beginner stitch and, to add insult injury, it is not illustrated in the instructions.

In fairness, if you can manage the pearl increase, the whole thing is not too bad and knits up quickly. You make two sides, a flap, a gusset and a strap in a mixture of garter stitch and stocking stitch.

Now for the making up. The leaflet contains  a series of paragraphs on blocking and various seam types, but  these are really general. The actual making up instructions for the bag are completely vague and don't tell you what stitches to use at all. I used a combination of mattress stitch and whatever-would-make-it-hold-together stitch.

The kit did contain one excellent tip. It suggested sewing petersham ribbon on the inside of the strap to prevent stretching. Once I'd been on the internet to find out what petersham ribbon was (again a little explanation would have gone a long way), I sewed on some robust but sweet cupcake ribbon I had in stash and it worked a treat. In the absence of any instruction, I handsewed the ribbon on with ordinary sewing thread in small stitches on the surface of the wool.

The kit didn't make any suggestions about how to keep one's bag closed, so I sewed a large press stud to the underside of flap and then covered it over on top with a fabulous Czech glass button from The Bead Store.

Happily, there was some leftover wool and I fashioned a small matching purse using rib stitch with a stocking stitch flap. This is topped with a beautiful handmade glass button from Lush Lampwork.

Don't get me wrong, I think the finished bag is lovely but there is no way I could have made this until recently and that's after 6 months of fairly intensive knitting practise. Maybe I'm just slow...

Melx

Momiji Dolls Mini Deco Cushion

With a little (more) help from ma...

Well, my mum's been busy helping me with my crafting again. This is a new, larger version of the fab Momiji Dolls pattern from August's 2009's Cross Stitcher Magazine.

After making the panel for my knitted and felted bag, ma decided to try the dolls on a large scale piece of aida in new colours. I ended up with two dolls rather than three becuse they were so huge, but they do look fab. Mum decorated the purple and pink doll with rose ribbon braid. My only contribution was to put two glass brads into the hair of the orange and yellow dolly.

Having already made a bag, I decided the dolls would look cute as a small deco cushion (the finished size is about 8" square). I cut the aida into a square and then machine sewed it onto a piece of plain green cotton fabric so you wouldn't be able to see through the aida.

For the back of the cushion, I decided to use this fabulous Paula Ozier fabric that I had bought a while ago.

As the cushion won't really be washable, I simply machine sewed round the front and back, right sides together, leaving a gap in the bottom for turning. I always leave a miniscule gap for turning as I hate handsewing the gap closed. Having fought to get it the right way round, I stuffed the cushion with toy filling and did my tiny bit of hand stitching.

I think this is such a cute decoration, but I can't really take much credit...

Merry Christmas

Melx

Alpaca Teddy Bear Knitting Kit

Do you think I'm odd?

Slightly weird bear...

This is the second kit I purchased at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitch Show on November 28th. Having already completed Momma Mouse, I only have one more kit to do (a cushion) to have got through them all within a month of purchase. Yay me!

Anyway, this is a Mr Been (the manufacturer's spelling not mine) alpaca teddy bear kit from Alpaca Select costing £11.

Teddy is knitted with 3.75mm straight needles and all in bits - head, two body pieces, two legs and two arms. The pink alpaca yarn that was supplied with the kit was just lovely to knit with and a really pretty colour.

Because of all the separate pieces, the making up was a bit of a chore. My mattress stitch is improving a bit and I am reasonably happy with the body and limbs. However, I don't think I made the best job of sewing the head together to meet in the middle.

For the facial features, I used some safety eyes and then black tapestry wool for the nose. I used polyster toy stuffing for the filling. I found a pink sparkly ribbon for teddy's neck, which helpfully disguises the rather dodgy sewing of the head onto the body.

I am concerned that teddy looks a bit odd. My husband assures me that it looks the same as the ones in the picture on the kit, which I suppose might mean the oddness isn't entirely my fault?

Very nice yarn though....

Melx

Momma Mouse Kit

Attack of the Giant Mouse 

I saw this supercute mouse when I visited the Harrogate Knitting and Stitch Show on November 28th. It was a kit from The Button Company costing £19.

I have to say that I am very proud of myself for actually getting on and doing the kit so quickly. I often buy things at shows that then languish unmade for many months or even years. I am especially proud because I was a bit intimidated by the kit because: (1) mousey is rather large at 14" high, and (2) mousey is fairly three dimensional compared with the flatter softies I often made.

The kit comprised the pattern, the brown fleece and the knitted flower fabric, together with the safety eyes and nose and the pom pom ribbon for the neck. I supplied the toy stuffing, thread and interfacing for the front of the ears.

Most of the mouse was machine sewn, which was moderately straightforward given the fairly large pieces. The pattern didn't specify a seam allowance so I veered between a quarter and half an inch, trimming the seams for rounded parts.

My main cheat was the ears. In the pattern, the knitted flower fabric is only used for an inner ear piece. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the pattern was saying about how to make the front of the ear, so I decided just to make the whole front of the ear from knitted fabric and the back from fleece. I think the ears look perfectly good that way.

I assembed the head of the mouse and then the body ready for stuffing, sandwiching in the paws, ears and tail in the right places. I put quite a lot of plastic toy pellets into the base of the mouse to help it stand up easily. I filled the rest of the base and the head with polyster toy stuffing.

To complete the mouse, I hand-sewed the head to the body, which was probably the trickiest bit of the whole project. Finally, I covered my line of stitches with the pom pom neck ribbon.

I found mousey easier to do than I expected and I am quite impressed with the result. I just need to find somewhere to put her now...

Melx

Ginny Wittle Whimsy Doll

Who needs Harry?

This cute little girl is from a pattern by Sarah Faix of Bit of Whimsy Dolls. I have made several of Sarah's doll and animal patterns before and they are really sweet and easy to make. So, I was terribly excited when she launched her new Wittle Whimsy Patterns range.

Wittle Whimsies are pairs of small dolls that are about 6 inches high in their finished form. As a big Harry Potter fan, I opted for the Harry & Ginny pair, deciding to begin with Ginny.

The pattern makes it clear that the doll is a bit fiddly to make because of its small size and is threrefore not suitable for a first sewing project. Although this was far from my first ride on my sewing machine, I decided to look for a few ways to simplify matters for myself.

I made Ginny's hair out of hot pink felt and hand appliqued it to her head. This also meant I didn't need to turn her hair buns right side out after sewing. For the same reason, I went for a paler pink felt for Ginny's arms and legs and hand sewed them together. I used a plain cream cotton for Ginny's head and a delicate pink floral print for her body.

As normal, I created the doll's face flat before sewing the halves together.  I used safety eyes and then embroidered the nose and mouth. I added a button for extra decoration on her hair.

Before sewing the doll together on the machine, I took the time to baste all the pieces together with the extremities sandwiched in the middle. For once, all the arms and legs came out the right way round. I stuffed the doll with toy stuffing and then hand sewed the opening I'd left at the bottom.

Ginny should have a cotton elasticated skirt. My attempt at the skirt didn't go all that well so I decided to go a bit mixed media. I knitted Ginny a little skirt on 4mm needles with Twilleys Freedom Spirit pure wool. I started with 14 stitches and then increased to create a bit of an A line. The top and bottom of the skirt are garter stitch with stocking stitch inbetween.

To finish off, I gave Ginny a little Papermania bow at the back of her skirt. Can't quite explain why her hair is at such a jaunty angle at the back though...

I may get around to making Harry but in the meantime Ginny is enjoying being an independent girl with a slightly uneven hairline.

Melx

Knitted Seaside Cottage Kit

Knit your own getaway retreat...

This delightful cottage was knitted from a kit from The Little Knit Kit Company in Wales (try saying that after a few chardonnays). It's intended as a starter knitting kit for children, which sounds about my level. I'm always curious about the knitting kits you get for children. I personally wouldn't have been able to work out how to knit from the instructions provided - it was only when someone showed me how to knit in person that I grasped it, but perhaps today's children are brighter...

Having said that, if you know how to cast on, how to knit (not even purl) and how to cast off, the kit is indeed very easy. It comes in a lovely paper bag with all the materials you need to make the complete cottage, including some dinky Pony 4mm knitting needles that I replaced with some grown up ones from my stash.

The cottage is made from four green and two gray flat pieces all in garter stitch. There was a very small amount of shaping for the eaves using knit two stitches together. You were supposed to sew the pieces together for a "rustic effect", which I managed very easily with my scruffy making up.

The kit also includes the felt and embroidery thread to make the windows and the door. The beads and button for the door also come with the kit and I think are a very sweet touch.

The instructions did do that thing I hate of suggesting sewing the features on after you have sewn together and stuffed the cottage. As usual, I decorated the cottage flat before I did the sewing.

Probably the hardest part of the whole thing was sewing the roof onto the house over the eaves. I had trouble keeping the roof in the right position whilst I got the stitches in. The effect is certainly rustic in that area!

I think the finished cottage is really rather nice and there was lots of yarn left over for other projects. I'd definitely try another of these kits - there's a cute cat I've got my eye on...

Melx

Matryoshka Bunny

Bunnies Bunny

This sweet and simple little rabbit is a project from a fab new book called Sew It, Stuff It by Rob Merrett. The book is filled with gorgeous doll and plush animal patterns. I thought I would start with a nice straightforward make as a break from the knitting and a bit of instant gratification.

As you might be able to tell from the title, the idea was in fact to make several bunnies in different sizes but I decided one was sufficient - no need to be greedy ;)

The book comes complete with pull-out full sized patterns. I photocopied the bunny and made it into a cardboard template to draw round. I used a pretty floral fat quarter from The Fent Shop in Skipton for the bunny's body. The bunny is one-sided so I added a safety eye and an embroidered nose before sewing the sides together on my sewing machine.

The book contains two excellent tips. Firstly, the ribbon around the bunny's neck is attached to the back of the body as part of the sewing process so it stays nice and secure. Secondly (and my favourite), the book recommends using pinking shears to trim the seam allowance so you can clip the curves at the same time. I hate clipping the curves with scissors and the pinking shears are an excellent shortcut.

I stuffed the bunny with toy filling and then attached the bell to the ribbon. I used a little fray check on the ends of the ribbon to prevent, erm, fraying.

The final florourish was bunny's pom pom tail. I made this from rather posh yarn (pure Shetland wool in natural fleece colour) using my trusty Clover medium sized pom pom maker. I always fasten pom poms with embroidery thread rather than yarn as it's less stretchy and you can attach the pom pom to the plushie with the same strand of thread for extra security.

I also used this project as an opportunity to buy some more bells (although in the end I used one I already had in stash). I love displaying my crafting goodies in jars and decided to create a bell jar. I like to use Hartleys jam jars for my stash because (a) I like Hartley's jam, and (b) they are a lovely light bulb shape.  I trimmed the jar using fancy felt, ribbon, felt shapes and a cute ladybird button. I'm not sure I will ever use this many bells in my lifetime, but don't they look pretty?

Melx

Knitted & Felted Bag with Momiji Cross Stitch Pocket

Not all my own work...

I'm a little bit in love with this bag in its lovely autumn colours. The idea started when my very talented mother agreed to make me a panel of Momiji dolls in cross stitch.

The Momiji design comes from Issue 215 of Cross Stitcher Magazine (August 2009) but my ma changed all the colours for me, including the centre doll, who has green hair just like me :)

I did make a small contribution to her masterpiece. I sewed the little button onto the purple doll, the orange bow onto the green doll and the pom pom hair bobbles onto the blue doll. I also sewed the panel onto an orange felt backing and then sewed over the raw edges of the aida with sparkly orange ribbon from HobbyCraft

I wanted to use the panel in a practical way so I decided to make a knitted shoulder bag. I used Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran that I had left over from my knitted rabbit due to my inability to tell the difference between 50g and 100g balls of wool. The bag was knitted loosely on 5.5mm needles. I cast on 55 stitches and did stocking stitch until it looked bit enough. The strap is a simple 10 stitches of garter stitch.

I made a terrible job of making the bag up - dodgy stitching and lumps and bumps everywhere. Happily, I had already decided to felt it. I think you need to felt a lot of knitted bags as they are just too stretchy otherwise. Two goes round the washing machine at 60 degrees and the bag was nicely shrunk and all my mistakes safely hidden. The final bag size is 12 inches wide and 11 inches long.

For a bit more structural integrity, I decided to make a lining for the bag from a brown cotton print and heavy weight sew-in interfacing. I also added a magnetic clasp and a small inner pocket.

I attached the Momiji doll panel with four orange buttons to start with. I was going to sew all four sides down flat but then I decided the panel would work pretty well as a front pocket for the bag. To finish, I hand sewed the lining into the bag.

This is probably my favourite thing I've made this year and all thanks to my lovely mum....

Melx

Knitted Friendly Ghosts Kit

Spooky....

Following up on the Halloween theme, I have recently finished a kit by Bergere de France called "Gentils Fantomes", which I believe translates to "Friendly Ghosts".

The kit came from Crafty Yarn for £17.99. The website just showed a picture of the finished ghosts, so I assumed, partly because of the subject matter, it was some sort of rough and ready indie kit. In fact, it arrived in a beautiful posh box with a magnetic closure. You get full sized balls of all the wools used and a pattern booklet in multiple languages (one of which was happily English!).

I decided to start with this fluffy grey ghost as it looked the easiest. He is knitted in Plume wool on 5.5mm needles. I have to say that I hated the feel of the toy stuffing you got with the kit and replaced it with my usual stuff. The kit included buttons for the eyes and I embroidered the mouth in silver grey embroidery thread. The pattern included tassels on each corner of the bottom of the ghost but I thought it was a bit much. Plume is very soft and cute and remains my favourite of the three.

Next up was this fellow whose body is knitted on 4mm needles in the Sport yarn. I found him a bit tricky because the pattern included the dreaded words "at the same time" and you had to remember to co-ordinate making the decreases to form the triangle with changing the pattern between garter stitch and stocking stitch. The wings are knitted on 3mm needles with grey Caline yarn. To finish, I decided to add a bit of colour by using green flower buttons from my stash and matching thread for the mouth. The pattern used cord from a French knitter for decoration but I decided a tassel for the head would be more fun.

Finally, I moved onto this ghostie, who was knitted in white and grey Caline yarn on 3mm needles. I made a terrible hash of the wings and decided to sew them on the wrong way round so you see the straight edge rather than curves. The buttons and mouth are as per the pattern, but rather than embroidering Boo! (or Booh! as apparenty it is in French), I used my Cuttlebug to cut a couple of Boo!s from orange felt and glued them on.

I thought this was a really unusual and fun kit to make and I now have a house filled with friendly ghosts. Cool, n'est pas?

Melx

Knitted Pumpkin & Pumpkin Purses

A trio of pumpkins....

I may have mentioned previously that I just love Halloween and pretty much all-year-round. So, the last few weeks have been great for acquiring spooky patterns and crafting goodies.

This little knitted pumpkin came from a PDF pattern from Catherine Ren's Etsy Shop. The pumpkin itself is knitted with a seam with 4mm needles. The orange wool is King Cole Superwash Merino Double Knit (not that I'm planning to wash it) and the stalk is Rowan Pure Wool DK. The stalk is also my first attempt at i-cord using evil double-pointed needles, so I'm quite proud. The pumpkin is a bit holey towards the top but quite cute with its flower button eyes.

This pumpkin purse was from a pattern in October's Simply Knitting magazine. It was knitted in two halves on 4mm needles, again with the King Cole Merino Superwash DK. It included make left and make right stitches, which were new to me, but which I think I got right. I actually sewed the two halves together after I had glued each half to the purse frame using Bostik All Purpose Glue. I've only used a purse frame once before and that was with fabric, which I found really difficult. The knitted purse, being stretchy, was quite a bit easier to poke into the channel of the purse frame. I got a bit of excess glue on the frame, but that was easily picked off when dry. The pumpkin face is made from scraps of black felt and simply glued on with fabric glue.

My final pumpkin product is this little felt purse made entirely from spooky items in my stash. The pouch was made from 10" x 6" of wool mix felt with an orange cotton spotty lining and a piece of sew-in interfacing in-between. I started by sewing the ribbon onto the front of the felt. I then sewed the layers of fabric right sides together on the sewing machine, leaving a gap for turning. After turning, I top stitched the whole thing and sewed the pouch down. To finish, I hand sewed a press stud to fasten the purse and concealed it with a cute pumpkin button. The left hand seam is in fact really shocking but you can't see it on this photo :)


So there you have my pumpkin tribute. Happy Halloween!

Melx

Knitted Owl and Mouse

Stalking Amy Gaines... 


I feel like I'm stalking Amy Gaines. I just love her knitting patterns and want to make them all!


This is Odessa Owl from Amy's recent book Little Knitted Creatures. The book is a supercute collection of all manner of knitted animals ranging from fish to birds to farmyard animals. Odessa is from the woodland creatures collection, which is my personal favourite.

As with Amy's other patterns, the owl is knitted on straight, albeit spindly (3.5mm) needles. One difference I noticed in the book is that a lot of the patterns use an invisible increase rather than the usual knit forwards and backwards for the shaping. I couldn't quite see how the increase worked so I used kfb as normal and it worked out fine.

I knitted Odessa using Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran in brown and camel. I'm still working on the neatness of my seaming but she isn't bad. The features are made from felt and Odessa has black safety eyes. I'm very much looking forward to making the rest of the woodland chapter except perhaps the gnomes...

Mousey here is an Amy Gaines PDF pattern from her Etsy Shop.

 I knitted the mouse using some leftover Sirdar eco wool for the body and ears. Unfortunately, I ran out before I got to the ears and had lost the band from the wool. I ordered some online and guessed the shade wrongly. Eventally I got the right colour (flint) in a wool shop in St Annes on Sea and no it probably wasn't the same dye lot either!

I decided to do a crochet chain for the tail. Mousey is currently whiskerless, however, as I can't get them to look right...

I think Amy's patterns are so appealing because they are really cute and impressive yet very easy to follow and make. I'm currently trying to persuade myself to learn how to use double-pointed needles but with patterns of this quality available for straight needles, I'm not too worried if I don't master the evil DPNs.

Melx

Halloween Fabric Hamper

Sew Hip Issue 22

I just love storage in all its glorious forms - boxes, baskets, buckets, jars, bags, drawers, compartments etc. As a multiple crafter, I always have plenty of stuff I need to store too. So, for November's Sew Hip Magazine, the Handy Hampers project by Niki Jarvis was a an easy choice for my monthly make.

I was also completely desparate to use this amazing My Minds Eye Boo to You! fabric I bought recently from the fabulous Seamstar. So you see, Halloweeen-themed storage combines two of my very favourite things.

For the lining, I used some plain lilac cotton drill I had in stash. I used quilting batting for the wadding in the side and base but sew-in interfacing for the handles to stop them being too bulky.

The method to create the side and base was fairly straightforward. You sandwich the outer fabric, lining and wadding right sides together and then turn and the hand sew the gap. The handles are also sandwiched in there - I was thrilled to find they ended up on the right side and untwisted!

The difficulty I had was with sewing the seam for the side panel and then sewing the side panel to the base. I was concerned that all the layers were too thick for my lightweight sewing machine and I wanted to ensure the side panel fit the base properly.

In the end, I decided to hand sew the panel around the base. I did this both on the outer and lining side for extra durability and neatness. I then overlapped the side panel and hand sewed that down too. My handles aren't quite in the middle, but otherwise I'm pretty pleased and I do love that fabric!

But what to store in my Halloween hamper? I think, as you can see from the piccie, it will have to join the other storage pressed into service to house my growing yarn stash (another eight balls came in the post just today!). The impromptu overlapped bit also creates a handy pocket for knitting needles, so you see these things happen for a reason...

Melx

Pink Charm Bracelet

Make Jewellery Issue 19


One of the reasons I started making my own jewellery is my love of charm bracelets. This is despite the fact that they are an utter pain to wear with the jangling and catching on things. So, it didn't take me long to select this pretty bracelet from November's Make Jewellery Magazine for my monthly make. It's from the Simply Charming project by Juliet Browse.


I was particularly attracted to the cube-shaped resin beads with fabric encased in them. Now, often when I get excited about resin beads I see in magazines, it transpires you have to make them yourself, which is a bit beyond me. In this case, however, I simply had to part with a mere £2.15 for a pack of three from Spoilt Rotten Beads. The millefiori rectangle and murano glass butterfly are from the same store. The pearl beads and the frosted glass bead were just from my stash.


The charm bracelet itself was a ready-made one with a toggle fastening that I found in a box I had helpfully labelled "bracelets". I can't recall its provinence. The beads were threaded onto sterling silver headpins using an assortment of tiny beads to stop them sliding off. I did like the sterling silver bead caps I used on the perarl beads, which came from Palmers Metals.


The beads are attached to the bracelet with wrapped loops. This was a bit awkward as the links of the bracelet are quite thick. Some of my wraps aren't very elegant but I noticed that the ones in the mag weren't super-neat either. The wraps on my pearl beads are pretty good though, probably because they were smaller.


As I didn't use all of the same beads as the magazine, I kind of let the design grow organically. That sounds great but in fact it meant I had to cut off and move several of the beads to get the spacing and balance of the bracelet right. Organic might be better when not using such a permanent method of attachment. However, the wrapped loops do mean that the bracelet is very secure and I shouldn't have bits falling off as you sometimes get when you use use jump rings.


So, all-in-all, I thought this was a cute, inexpensive yet durable piece for my collection pending me making the leap into doing my own resin beads.


Melx

Sirdar Indie Wrap and Tank Top

Grown Up Knitting... 

My knitting adventures to date have been largely based on fripperies - bags, purses, toys and the like. Although the ability to make such items was the reason I learned to knit, I wondered if I should attempt something a bit more substantial.

I had seen Sirdar's Indie yarn trailed in a couple of knitting magazines and liked the look of it. It's 51% wool and 49% arcrylic (handily, I've set my yarn snobbery level at 50% wool minimum). The yarn is self-patterned, knitted on nice chunky 12 mm needles and has a lovely soft feel to it.

I saw the yarn in the flesh at a craft show in Manchester and duly bought the Sirdar pattern book Indie Knits and 5 balls of Apache shade 150 (got to love the names they give the colours). With my 5 balls, I made this lovely ribbed wrap. Unlike my previous attempt at rib (a hat), the ribs stay in line all the way through. My husband pronouced it "very professional".

The making up instructions were a bit vague so I sewed a big lilac button through both halves of the wrap so that you pull it on over your head. I really like the Apache colourway and have bought some more to make a hat and scarf.

Flushed with success, I decided to be a bit more ambitious and try the tank top in Navajo (shade 151). This was a bit scary, especically when you had to divide the stitches for the neck and try to make sure both halves were the same size. I mysteriously went about quarter of a ball over the amount I was supposed to (and didn't check if the dye lot was the same for the extra ball I had to send for), but the thing appears to fit so I'm not worrying.

The making up across the shoulders is shockingly bad but not too noticeable. However, I was truly chuffed with my mattress stitch up the sides, which I managed after watching this video about a dozen times.

Despite this modest success, I'm probably not planning to attempt loads of garments. It's often not terribly economic if you like nice wool (the tank top came in about £36, which isn't too bad). Also, if you're a bit on the lardy side like me, clothes are going to take an age, especially if spindly needles are required.

Still, I've made two proper items from a proper pattern book, so I can made the pumpkin purse I've got lined up next with a clear conscience.


Melx

Mermaiden Doll

I like fins...

This sweet little mermaid doll is from a fabulous book called Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love by Hillary Lang. It's another one of those books that would be nice to look at even if you never made anything from it. However, on the principle that I should get value from my book purchases, I tried to pick-out an easy-ish dolly to start me off.

The mermaiden is made up of three basic bits: the body, the fins and the hair. All are sewn using a technique I'd never used before. Rather than cutting out the pattern piece and then sewing it with a seam allowance, you draw the pattern onto the fabric, stitch it and then cut it out to the seam allowance. I actually found this quite a good way of doing it as the pieces are quite small (the doll is only about 7" tall) and I could follow the drawn line with my needle on the sewing machine.

The body is made from plain cream fabric, the hair from baby pink corduroy and the fins from printed cotton. I don't think I made a brilliant job of embroidering mermaiden's face - it looks a bit, um, dented, which the book did warn about.

For the hair and the fins, you were supposed to free-motion quilt over two pieces of fabric to give a textured effect. I drew my lines in first with a trick marker, but I think they still look at bit jagged rather than smooth curves. I think I need more practise.

Assembling mermaiden was very straightfroward. You just pop some stuffing into the bottom of the fin and then sew her into it. Her hair is just pulled down over her head and stitched in place.

The patterm called for a ric rac ribbon hair decoration, but rather lazily I picked out a glittery star embellishment from my stash and glued it on. I say I, in fact my husband chose it from a selection I showed him. Nice choice though.

As mermaiden is quite a flat doll, I decided to hang her for display purposes (in the nicest possible way). I attached a small pieced of glittery pink ribbon to her head and now she's dangling from the wall in my study.

I have to say that one of best things about mermaiden is her lack of legs. I always find legs on dolls and toys difficult - they are either too spindly to turn after sewing or I end up sandwiching them the wrong way round, so here's to fins!

Melx

Pumpkin Head Zombie Brooch

Sequins for brains...

I was beside myself with excitement when I saw the book Zombie Felties featured in Sew magazine Issue 16. I love zombies and I love making things from felt, so what could be more perfect! The book, by Nicola Tedman and Sarah Skeate features 16 patterns for teeny tiny felt zombies. There's a zombie rabbit, a zombie, duck, a zombie puppy, a zombie zombie...

With Halloween approaching, I opted for the zombie Pumpkin Head. I had everything I needed in stash in terms of felt, embroidery thread, beads and sequins. However, these guys are really tiny - Pumpkin Head is only about 6cm finished size. At first, I was tempted to enlarge the pattern and I still might with some of the others, but I decided to bite the bullet and cut it to size. The cutting out was really fiddly. I made the pattern into cardboard templates as usual, but the smallest bits were really difficult to get right and some bits like the bandages I ended up cutting freehand instead.

The bandages and mouth are glued on, but everything is hand sewn. I didn't find the small size too much of an issue for the stitching part and hand sewing is so zen comparing with the stress of the sewing machine. The sequin brains were the toughest part of the sewing - trying to get them spilling out of the split in the head appropriately. The sequins in the book were pink. I only had green, but I think zombie pumpkin brains could equally be green don't you?

Due to their petite size, the felties are great for making into key rings, bag charms and other accessories. I made pumpkin head into a cute little brooch by attaching a brooch back to the reverse of his head. I wore him out shopping yesterday and he was admired by several teenagers.

I'm doing the Day of the Dead Zombie next. I've already cut the teeny bits out so I'm looking forward to growing my zombie feltie family.

Melx

Knitted Alice in Wonderland Doll

Adventures in Woollyland...

This delightful Alice in Wonderland doll is another fab PDF pattern from Amy Gaines' Etsy Shop. I love all things Alice and I simply couldn't resist her, although I suspected the project might be beyond my meagre talents.

The doll was knitted on straight 3mm needles and I mostly used Patons Fairytale Dreamtime DK yarn from Addicted to Knitting, which has a great next day service for the impatient knitter.

To make the doll, you knit each bit separately, body, hair, legs, arms, skirt etc etc and then stitch each piece together. It was a bit like being a serial killer in reverse (my husband pointed out that I even have a box of eyes just like a serial killer).

As with previous toy projects, I found the slender needles and the large amount of increasing required a challenge (the instruction to increase in every stitch tends to make my heart sink).

One additional thing I picked up during this project is that I need to watch my tension on the first and last stitch of each row in a bid to get neater edges. You also have to try to form a firm fabric so the stuffing doesn't show through. The bottom of Alice's head was a bit dodgy so I added some extra stitches to stop her neck wobbling.

I just love the detail in this pattern though - the stripey tights, the headband and the bar across her Mary Jane shoes really bring the doll to life. I was a bit sceptical about using real blusher to do Alice's cheeks but it turned out a bit of Clinique Innocent Peach was just the ticket.

I'm not sure either the knitting or the making up is perfect, but she is absolutely Alice to me...

Alien Lampwork Earrings & Plushie

Mmmmm green...

The ever-amazing Keiara made these fabulous alien lampwork beads. These are micro-sized version of her awesome Lil Bit beads and stand just over 1cm high. They are fantastically detailed, with pink spots on the front and purple scales up the back.

My contribution to this fabulous pair was embarrassingly small. I used sterling silver eye pins to create wrapped loops onto earring hooks. Great beads kind of make themselves into jewellery I think.

These cuties also inspired me to make an alien plushie to go with them. I've been wanting to make plushes from my own patterns for a while. Whilst "original" would be a bit much (the earrings were of course an inspiration and my husband says it looks a bit like one of the aliens from The Simpsons), this is my attempt:

To start with, I drew a rough shape onto cardboard, even though I'm lousy at drawing. To ensure the pattern was symmetrical, I folded it in half to cut it out. Using my pattern, I made the alien's body from green polar fleece (I have enough left over for my own alien race). I sewed the two halves together on the sewing machine and clipped the curves.

The eye circle is made from blue felt and appliqued on with embroidery floss. The pupil was cut free hand and glued on. I decorated each leg/fin/tentacle with a purple arcylic button. The bow is made from a square of Moda Free Bird from a charm pack (I was too lazy to cut something out from a bigger piece). I stuffed the alien with a combination of toy filling and plastic pellets to give it a bit of weight.

To finish off my alien, I sewed a ceramic start button on its bottom and, with a touch of narcissism, attached one of my "By Melanie Jane" tags.

A reasonable attempt I think, but not a patch on the earrings...

Melx

Tree of Life Earrings

Make Jewellery Magazine Issue 18

Slender pickings from my point of view in October's Make Jewellery Magazine. However, having hastily bypassed a necklace made out of sabre tooth-shaped beads that looked positively hazardous to wear, I found the Peace & Harmony project by Linda Jones.

I was particularly taken with these tree of life disc earrings. So, I went ahead and ordered two discs and some 10mm haematite rounds from e-beads. For each earring, I threaded a haematite bead between two smokey grey Swarovski crystals onto sterling silver headpins. I attached the tree of life discs with small jump rings and then added my earring hooks. Very simple, but most stylish I thought.

As I'm incapable of buying beads I've seen in a mag without having a peek at what else the shop in question has to offer, I bought (amonst other things I confess), these rather cute antique silver skull beads ( I do love a nice skull bead).

To go with them, I also bought some fancy round spacers and I just added from my stash very teeny sterling silver round beads on the top of the skull and either side of the round bead. These earrings are made in the same style as the tree of life pair with the round bead on top and the focal bead dangling off the bottom, which I think is a good design to use in future.

I do find earrings very satisfying to make in terms of fairly instant gratification and both these pairs will make fab additions to my hippy and goth jewellery collections respectively.

Melx

Knitted Topsy Turvey Turtle

Stripey fun 

My PDF knitting pattern adventures continue with this sweet stripey turtle. She (note the pink embellishments) is from Amanda Berry's Fluff and Fuzz collection that I found in her Folksy Shop.

I didn't get off to the best start when I mislaid the PDF pattern in a fit of cleaning out my email inbox. Amanda was kind enough to send me the pattern again and this time I saved it firmly to my hard drive and printed it out.

I made the turtle from Rowan pure wool DK in gilt for the head and legs and two shades of green for the stripey body. You make each body part separately on straight needles - the head and legs in one piece for each one and the shell in two halves. The pattern was very easy to follow and the making up instructions were very clear. You sew and stuff each body part and then sew them together.

The hardest part for me was using the spindly (I know I use that word a lot of this blog) 3mm needles. I kept pulling stitches off the needle if I misfired a stitch. It was very good practice from that point of view as many of the patterns I've got lined up are knitted on slender needles.

The striping on the turtle doesn't match (one side short stripes and the other long), which undoubtedly saved another headache. I tend to find it boring knitting two identical sides of something and one side always ends up being better than the other.

For embellishment, I used hot pink buttons for the eyes (mainly because that's what colour I had in the right size) and a matching felt flower and button from Blooming Felt. I added a small Papermania bow to her head.

Although it's not quite as neat as the pattern pictures, I was really pleased with my finished turtle and I'm definitely going to try some more of Amanda's patterns.

Melx

Knitted Drawstring Cupcake Purse

PDF yumminess

I've been trawling Folksy and Etsy for some new knitting patterns to try - mainly toys and small accessories. I've bought quite a few knitting books but individual PDFs have a couple of advantages - they don't take up much room and it's easier to contact the designer if you have any questions.

This is the first of my haul - a cute knitted cupcake purse from Amy Gaines. I was attracted to Amy's patterns because they were really pretty designs and also knitted on straight needles (I'm not feeling up to those double points yet).

I found the PDF instructions and illustrations really clear. The purse is knitted with spindly 3mm needles and I used Rowan pure wook DK for both the base and the icing. I found it a bit tricky to get started but once I had got the increases done for the base, it was fine.

The ruffle was knitted separately. I found that part a bit tough as you had to do knits front back and front again to increase one stitch into three. I found this quite hard with the small needles and I'm not sure I did it right, but it looked quite ruffle-like when it was done so I decided it would do.

The purse is made up by making a seam up the back and attaching the ruffle at the bottom of the icing. I used pink ribbon braid for the drawstring rather than yarn as I can't plait for toffee. I sewed on some bugle beads for sprinkles. To finish the drawstrings, I used a couple of glass Pandora-style beads from Totally Beads. 

I was very pleased with the finished cupcake despite a few imperfections. I've bought three others patterns from Amy that I'm looking forward to making. I've also just ordered her book Little Knitted Creatures, which looks fun too, although it will take up more space than the PDFs...

Melx

Clutch Bag

More Sew Hip Issue 21


In a fit of enthusiasm, I've done a second make from October's Sew Hip. This is the Hold-me-tight clutch by Christine Down.

 I have to say that when I was preparing for this project, I was a bit perturbed by the materials list.It suggested you needed 1x1.5m of fabric for the exterior and 0.5x1.5m for the lining. I cut out the main template for the bag, waved it near my fabric stash and then ascertained that I could easily manage with a half meter for the outer and a fat quarter for the lining.


For the exterior, I used some Flower Fairies fabric I've had for ages. I found a complementary lilac floral fat quarter for the lining. The decorative ribbon for the front and for attaching the metal ring is from the fab Blooming Felt. You will note how the ribbon attached the ring is in fact upside down, but at least I didn't sew it the wrong way out.


The bag is a classic lined, zipped pouch and, although I've done several before, my limited spacial skills make it a challenge. I had particular difficulty with the instruction, "Flip the two exterior panels and zip over, so that the wrong side of the exterior fabric is uppermost. Repeat all the above with the lining fabric, placing it wrong sides together with the exterior fabric." The problem was that"all of the above" was with the fabric and the zip a different way up. Anyway, I managed it, although my zip ended up a bit mismatched in terms of where it finished. I concealed my teensy error by hand sewing some of the fabric over the excess zip.

I thought it was quite funny that the project said, "Try to find a coloured zip that matches your fabric - it's little details like that which made your projects look professional!" I'm not sure that my matching navy blue zip is going to make up for the wonky lines of stitches across it but I can hope...
 The strap piece was quite thick to sew for my lightweight machine and I caught my finger trying to shove it under the foot. Unfortunately, the metal clips I had weren't wide enough for the fabric, so I attached the strap directly to the metal ring - it's a key ring anyway so I can still detach the strap if I need to.


Making the rosette brooch was fun and fairly easy. I topped it off with a pretty button that I had bought on spec only the day before, thereby justifying my policy of adding to my substantial stock of  buttons on a regular basis.


To finish, I added a glass bead as a zipper pull - a touch I always feel makes up for any other defects in the zip installation.


I've had the bag out for a test drive and nothing fell out, so I declare the project a success...


Melx

Pumpkin Bag

A pumpkin is not just for Halloween...

Following hot on the heels of my pumpkin tea cosy, I was thrilled to see the pattern for this pumpkin bag in Sew Hip Issue 21. I always eagerly scan the October (aka August) issues of my craft magazines for Halloween projects. It's just a pity that you usually only get one month's worth rather than the five that are reserved for Christmas projects!

Anyway, the pumpkin bag by Joanna Landau is designed as a trick or treat bag for kiddiwinks. As I'm more of an all-year-round pumpkin kind of girl, I thought it would make a cute fabric basket for my bits and bobs instead. Hence, as the project suggested, I made a version lined in black felt to add additional structural robustness.

As I was a little low on orange and black felt, I sent for some supplies from the delightful paper-and-string, which arrived the very next day. I cut out the pumpkin segment pattern to make a cardboard template and was good to go.

The pattern suggested attaching the fusible interfacing to one side of the felt after cutting out the segments, but that seemed like a lot of work. So, I attached the interfacing to the whole piece of felt and then did my cutting. This was especially handy when cutting out the black lining segments as I could actually see the outline of the segment on the white surface of the interfacing (trick marker on black is less effective than you might hope).

The eight segments were attached on the sewing machine, which was moderately straightforward. The pattern suggested putting  a small circule of felt on the wrong side of the pumpkin to reinforce the bottom of the bag. I glued my circle to the right side of both the outer shell and the lining to hide a tiny bit of dodginess where the very tips of the segment met.

The lining was made in the same way as the outer pumpkin and then I sewed the lining into the pumpkin by hand with embroidery thread. For the handle, I decided to use two pieces of black felt stitched together rather than interfacing a single piece as I thought it looked more elegant.

For decoration, I chose not to make a pumpkin face but rather glued on a selection of spooky embellishments from my stash. I added fab Halloween ceramic buttons from Injabulo to the bottom of the handles for a bit of extra loveliness and to hide some of the handle stitches.

My pumpkin is a tiny bit lopsided, but I'm very excited about filling it with goodies. I do like those tiny chocolate pumpkin you get at Halloween so maybe I will do some trick or treating...

Melx